Mojave legacy
by LollyFox
Summary: 4 years since the second battle of the Hoover dam, The Couriers presence is felt still. The great bear is stretched thin across the desert, struggling to protect and provide for its people. Meanwhile, in the ruins of Big MT, the Couriers half-breed daughter trains herself to one day take on the role of her father. This is her story.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1:The stage is set**

You could say I've led an unusual life. Normally, this story would start when I was born, but that's not the case.

I was made.

I don't remember much from before I was 15. I assume this was when I was created by father. You could say I was a bit of an experiment, one that was not expected to work what so ever. My first memory was laying limply on the cold steel floor, naked and weak, staring straight up. Father exclaimed something then, but I could not hear. He gave me some clothes to wear and carried me out of the lab where I was created, and took me to the dome. There, he explained to me that I was a product of gene splicing, a hybrid of human and canine DNA, intended to combine the best of both. The first of my kind, he told me with pride. I was far from being newborn in terms of intellect, In spite of my lack of memory I could be considered substantially smarter than the average person even then. This made father even more pleased. Why he made me I could not say, nor did I ever really ask-I just assumed that all would be revealed in due time. He raised me well out here in the big empty. He taught me how to be a doctor like him and build things and defend myself. He taught me right from wrong, good from bad.

That was 4 years ago. 2 Years since he's left.

One night, I was woken up by a racket coming from inside the think-tank. Father and I had converted the Immense lab into our own workshop, and it held a multitude of equipment, firearms, and random projects we would tinker with from time to time. I walked down the hall towards it and opened the electronic doors. Father was standing in front of a table, upon which was a fair variety of guns he was cleaning and loading. Instead of his usual lab coat, he was wearing his old ranger armor. He noticed me walk in.

"Sorry to wake you at such a late hour."

He apologized, as he polished the cylinder of a 45-70 Hunting revolver.

"What are you doing down here?"

I asked, noticing the assortment of weaponry. Father would often prepare like this before leaving to tend to the outside world. He would sometimes be gone for weeks, but he said that he was helping people, assisting the republic and its efforts to rebuild, so I didn't mind.

"I'm just stocking up, I was planning on heading out in the morning. Matters have come up in the Mojave that require my attention."

He explained, shoving the gun into his hip holster. He began inspecting the barrel of an AMR. With a sigh, he said;

"I might be gone for a long time."

I was dismayed. But then, an Idea popped into my head.

"Why can't I just come with you?"

I asked. He put the rifle down and walked over to me, putting his hands on my shoulders.

"I'm sorry, Seraph, but the world isn't ready for you yet. A lot of people still fear technology and science, and blame it for societies downfall. I fear people would try to hurt you."

I pushed his hands off of me and glared at him.

"So? I can hold my own. I can shoot. I can wield a sword. There has to be some armor I could wear somewhere in here…"

I argued, But father remained steadfast.

"Like I said, I'm sorry. But you help people even without leaving. Like when you designed that prototype for a more efficient solar panel."

He said, and this brought a confused look to my face, before it dawned on me.

"You…actually used those schematics?"

I asked. Father nodded.

"Yep. I brought them back to shady sands for some of the brass to OK, and soon I had replaced all the old solar arrays at the Helios one plant and Nellis. Because of you, we have enough power to keep New Vegas going without any brown-outs."

As my father related to me what had happened, I was speechless. Something I designed did all that?

"Now I know you want to go fight the good fight like I always do, but it's just not your time yet. Trust me, the day will come."

One thing about my father, he had the kindest eyes. The rest of his face was a scarred, gaunt mess, but his eyes shone with a light that seemed so innocent and full of compassion-It was hard to believe this was the man who had slain the Legate Lanius. I hugged him tightly, and he returned the favor.

"I love you, Dad."

I wouldn't see him again for a very, very long time.

Fast forward 2 years. I'm still waiting, every single day, for him to return. On the particular day when everything began to change, I had woken up early, decided to go for a hike before the sun rose up to high in the sky and scorched the whole damn place. I was washing my face, and the sink was commenting the whole time, commending my cleanly behavior. I looked in the mirror a bit. I looked like an average 20 year old, I guess, save for my fox ears and the tail, Plus my eyes had the oddest tendency to shine in the dark, and my fingertips ended in small, sharp claws. My auburn hair reached down to my shoulders, and I looked down to inspect myself-Still just a tad chubby. What can I say? Foods always in ample supply here, and I'll sometimes go weeks without moving out of the workshop when I get really going on an idea. The sink reminded me of the importance of good hygiene and the seed incubator made a barely concealed comment on my figure. Somewhere, Muggy began screaming in frustration. I bid them all goodbye, Slung a hunting rifle over my shoulder out of habit, and approached the steel doors that lead down into the outside world.

The sun had yet to crest the massive, imposing mountain walls that surrounded me on all sides, and the stars still lit up the skies. At times, I would sit down on the side of the path and look up at the constellations, trying to identify them. I wasn't too good at it, but I could always find ursa-major. My father used to be able to find them all. That was one of those odd things about him, he was a very superstitious man. He claimed that the stars told him where to go, and he said he could hear the Mojave sing to him when he would walk through its barren expanses at night. Real weird shit, coming from a scientist. The sun was starting to show its face towards the east, and I decided a brisk climb was exactly what I needed. I picked the nearest cliff and got to it. Even though I was a bit hefty for my size, I had learned to wield it with ease, and made it up the cliff in no time. The stars were starting to dissipate, and the break of dawn illuminated the Big MT almost instantly. I could see the various labs that were scattered about the complex, and the hexcrete spires that thrust themselves into the sky, and the glowing red crystals that marked professorMobius's laboratory. Then I noticed that damn cave. I had never seen it before, and my curiosity got the best of me, like it almost always does.

I stood at the mouth of the cave, rifle in hand. Me and father had cleaned the whole Big MT out years ago, but you never really know here. One time, I disturbed a nest of cazadors checking out a cavern much like this. That was not very enjoyable at all. I took a few tentative steps, and flicked my pip-boy light on. The cave certainly went down a little deeper, and so I walked, ever so cautious, down its rocky hall. At the end, I found what seemed to be a fully equipped safe house. There was a few shelves, a few sandbag barricades, a mattress, a reloading bench, and an awful lot of books, most of which were in great condition. After making sure no one had been in here a long time, I set about stuffing the books into my backpack. Behind them was a strange marking that had been painted on the cave wall. It took me a second, but I recognized it as the U.S flag. Quite a perplexing symbol, and I found myself wondering about who had set up this camp. Certainly not my father, he had the Sink, and no lobotomite would be intelligent enough to keep books in such pristine shape (No burns or mold-I flipped the fuck out) My father said that only he and these other two people, Christine and Elijah, were the only ones who had every seen the big MT since after the war. Then I spied the box full of holotapes. I picked it up and looked inside. Each one was numbered in sequence, but no date. The mystery was too much. I carried the box of tapes with me back to the sink, and quickly shut myself in my bedroom to listen to the holotapes.

It was then that it all changed.

The holotapes were made by a man who referred to himself as Ulysses. He talked in a deep, baritone voice that demanded ones attention. The recordings would differ from one another considerably. Sometimes they would be journal entries, sometimes they would be philosophical rants. A few were recordings of his conversations with some of the people Father had mentioned. But it was the last one, that truly began my quest. It was Ulysses talking to himself again. He said he needed to remind himself why he was doing this, whatever "This" was. Then he….I…

*There is silence for about half a minute, then the recording resumes*

He told himself what father had done. How he destroyed an entire fledgling nation. How he launched the nukes. It made no sense-It was like the anti-thesis of the courier I knew. I had to know more about this Ulysses person, but who was I to ask? Father was nowhere to be found, The robots in the sink don't know anything, and the members of the think-tank…well, there long gone. I guess that only leaves one person in the whole Big MT that can answer my questions. I don't care about the damn heat, I'm going as soon as I get done with this log.

I'm going to go speak with the esteemed doctor Mobius.

And then I'm leaving this place. I'm going to find father.

*Subject pauses again*

And I'm going to find some answers.

*End of pip-boy log #31:09:13, 03/17/83, subject: Seraphim Eldritch.*


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2:Tourists**

It was going to be hot as shit, and even though Mobius's lab was merely an hours walk away, I stopped back at the Sink to restock up. I grabbed a few waters from the fridge, chatted with the light switches and my toaster (A rather angry fellow!) while I loaded a .44 magnum, and as I was leaving, I reached into my pack and handed Muggy a coffee mug I had found in the new cave. He began crying, though whether out of joy or sadness, I could not say. The next time I went outside, the temperature and the brightness was rising quickly. I hurriedly walked over to the residence of the esteemed doctor Mobius.

I got all the way to his front door without any wacky shit happening. That's quite unusual whenever I chance a visit to Mobius's part of the compound-Seems he has difficulty differing a really bad idea from a really good idea, and he never had a good idea. Or they would've been good ideas, if they weren't trying to constantly murder _me._ He could program them to go after anything-Spore carriers. Deathclaws. Lobotomites. Each other. But no…Anyhow, I digress.

I was just about to ring the doorbell (Nice touch right?) to Mobius's laboratory when I hear buzzing sound behind me. I turn around, 44. Mag in my hand. My eyes dart to the left, than the right, than back again. I could hear them, but I couldn't see them. Then, one of those things zips out from behind a rock, and I quickly identify it as a cybernetic enhanced Cazador. How lovely. I was fast enough to put a bullet in its head before it got me, but by then the rest of his friends were upon me, Stinging painfully-The good doctor must've switched out their natural venom with a more potent chemical. I managed to blast a few, but most of the time they just flew to the side when I aimed my shot. I was out of ammo and did not wish to reload in such a situation, so I changed my tactics.

And I turned on VATS.

If The Vault-tech Automated Targeting System is a crutch, It's the kind of crutch that can lay low whole battalions. You need a little…"Work" done to be able to use it, but it's all worth it. I dropped my gun and switched it on, and felt a slight tingle as the Pip-boys jackwires integrated themselves into my nervous system, and my Cybereye's HUD flickered on.

For posterity, I should probably record that this is the _only_ cyberware I have. I neglected to mention it in the prior logs because it simply was not relevant.

I brought my hands up into a fighting stance as my pip-boy calculated infinite variables and fed tactical advice as to how to cause the maximum amount of damage. I punched the first Cazador in the wing, going right through the appendage and leaving it flightless, where I stomped it into submission. I ducked as another Robo-dor flew at me, stinger barred-And sure enough, it flew right into one of his buddies. The two of them were fine, but this was exactly what I needed. One Robo-dor attacking another would momentarily confuse their Friend/Foe recognition software, just long enough for me to, hypothetically, grab my dropped sidearm and load it…By the time their CPU's had processed what was going on, I had the Magnum back in my hands, and VATS signaling a 98% chance to score a direct hit-Robotic or not, It always feels good to off a few Cazadors.

"What the hell did you do that for?"

I heard the Doctor ask over the intercom. He was obviously watching from one of the surveillance cams. I looked up at the nearest one.

"Keep your pets on a damn leash, and if you ever make anything that even _resembles_ a Cazador, I'll smash your casing with a sledgehammer. Care to let me in?"

I responded. There was a brief pause before he answered.

"No. That is a dejected way to speak your elders, young lady. I would expect your father to have taught you better."

"I'm not sure that dejected means what you think it means."

"The point still stands. I do not want you in my lab with that attitude."

"Let me in or I'll break in. Remember what happened last time I broke in?"

There was another pause.

"Okay. Just promise not to hurt the nightstalkers."

As per usual, the doctors lab was a mess. Papers and beakers were strewn all over the place, and the floor in particular was covered in odd equations that made little sense, and were rarely correct. The doctor himself was looking great. Father had fixed his broken eye a year or so back (Wouldn't say where he got the parts…) and he had managed to stay out of harm's way.

"hhhhmmmmm. Ulysses. Don't know a lot about that stranger. I saw him get into an altercation with the buffoon who shot me near the little Yangtze one time…Let me think…"

He said, as the liquid that held his brain in the middle of his chassis bubbled about.

"I can't say I remember him to well. He kept talking about someplace west of here…the "Divide" or some such…Ah well. That's all I've got."

He conceded, doing an odd little shrug with his broadcast panels. I was about to thank him, when suddenly. The lights turned red, and a claxon sounded.

ALERT! HUMANOID APPROACHING PERIMMETER!"

The computer screens said, and then switched to a live-feed of a struggling figure in heavy armor who was indeed making their way to the Big MT. suddenly, it fell to the ground, apparently exhausted.

"He'll die out there if we just leave him."

I said, more to myself than Mobius-I doubt he cared.

One of the many things my father and I had rebuilt was a Humvee he had found in the garage of one of the buildings here. We replaced its engine and modified it to run off of microfusion cells, but we still rarely ever used it. At least now I was getting some purpose out of it other than occasional driving lessons. I stepped on the gas-I was well familiar with driving by now, and had none of the tentative fear of an inexperienced operator-and sped out of the sink, towards the crater walls, up a road that wound up along the rock, crested above the rim of the crater, and looked out to the big empty. It surely lived up to its name-miles upon miles of flat, waterless desert. It was a wonder someone had made it out this far. In the distance, a large sandstorm was brewing-According to my Pip-boys radar, whoever was out there was in its way. I had to move, fast, or there was no way I could find them in that dust cloud. I hit the gas and the heavily modified beast took off down the gentle slope of the craters outside. The trackless, flat nature of the Big Empty turned out to be a godsend in situations like this-with nothing to get in the way, you could truly lay on the speed. I was pushing 60, then 70, then 80, then 100…Let's just say that lead feet run in my family. The intruder was about a couple hundred yards away when I spotted him-He was collapsed under a pile of what I recognized as T-51d power armor. I pulled up beside the unconscious figure, and chance a glance in the direction of the dust cloud-barely half a mile away, and moving fast. I strained and pulled to get him into the backseat of the truck-I swear to god, that armor must add 50 goddamn pounds-and got the bastard in the Humvee right as the first tendrils of burning sand began to creep up on me. Expeditiously, I climbed back into the driver's seat and wheeled off.

Through no small amount of toil, I managed to get my new friend into the elevator and on the couch, where I began inspecting him. The armor was corroded in a few places that in telltale bursts that indicated the use of plasma weaponry. Piece by piece, I began stripping away the outer protective plates until only the base armor was visible. Then it became quickly apparent that he was a she, and she was about to die of dehydration. I stuffed her into the auto-doc and ordered it to…do something. I work with machines, not people. He assured me everything would be fine-But its lucky I found her when I did! With the crises over, I felt mildly disappointed. Now the only thing to do was wait and see if the 'Doc would be able to work his magic on her. I idly began messing with a laser pistol I found on one of the shelf, screwing around with its charging port to see if I could optimize the power feed per-SEC.

Not but half an hour later, shit started happening again.

"Madam, It seems Dr. Mobius's, erm… Creations are paying us a visit."

The sinks' mainframe informed me.

"Pull up the outside cameras on the living room screen."

I ordered as I stepped into the next room over, and powered on the large screen that took a considerable portion of the wall. There _was_ a large amount of modified cazadors out there-and they were trying to get in. Some threw themselves at the titanium doors, but most were smarter than that, and pried the grates off of the pipes that ran the air circulation system. I barely had time to utter the first half an obscenity when I heard an awful lot of thumping around above my head. They were already in. I clutched my .44 as they began chewing through the air grates on the inside. I ran into the main room and shut down all the doors. It wasn't long until they started scratching at them, banging to get in. I had to act fast. If the robotic cazadors could break through the doors, they could chew the autodoc to bits in seconds. Cazadors always go after the weakest, heavily injured members of the group. Their already flawless knowledge of the sink indicated infrared or some other advanced visual enhancement. In less scientific terms, The girl in the autodoc wouldn't last long. I had to get her somewhere safe-well, safe-er. I disengaged the autodoc-He protested, stating plainly he was not finished with his patient, so I had to disable his personality chip- and grabbed the girl- A lot easier of a task without the extra metal plating- and laid her out on the bed in my room. I locked the door behind me-Holes already began materializing in the door. I pulled out my knife, and readied it alongside my pistol, firing into the holes, delaying them. They didn't come through in a trickle, like you'd expect-no, they ruined the doors integrity, collapsing it in on itself in a pile of warped metal which was quickly lost behind a swarm of cybernetic death-bugs. They surrounded me, stinging and biting, as I swung and fired randomly, always two more to replace any one I slew. The robots were [putting up a fight as well- The book chute was launching blank books at deadly velocities towards the cazadors, and the autodoc-who had now rebooted himself-would hang open, allowing unwitting insects to fly into his operating compartment, before he would slam shut much like a Venus flytrap and begin to eviscerate them with his surgical equipment. From the room where I had kept the toaster, I heard a string of obscenities largely obscured by a sound that sounded halfway between a chainsaw and a heavy incinerator being fired, and I spied muggy flailing about and striking the bastards. One of them caught me from behind, sinking its stinger well into my flesh. I fell to the ground, and a few more crowded me, a whirlwind of pain assaulting me as the highly acidic venom fucked up my body. My vision was getting bleary, and then I heard the peculiar ZAP! Of a laser being fired, then the familiar sound of rapid organic deterioration caused by collision of matter with a superheated beam of light. The lasers struck the cazadors pining me down, and I stood up to get a look at my new ally-the girl had regained consciousness, and brandished the laser pistol I was fiddling with earlier. I stood back up, grit my teeth, and tried to make out the cazadors in my blurred vision. It seemed to subside, and I ducked behind the mainframe to reload as my new friend blasted more cazadors. Apparently, we put up a good fight, for the cazadors seemed to be…retreating? I didn't know they were smart enough to do so. As I put a fatal round into the thorax of one of the stragglers, I let out an oddly relieved sigh. Then the poison came back in full force-I couldn't see a damn thing, and began to fall over, before I felt something catch me.

"It's okay, it's okay, I got you."

An unfamiliar, smooth female voice said, as I was eased down to the floor.

"Do you keep any antivenom?"

She asked. I strained to remember.

"Mmmmmn…under the work bench…should be a…Jesus fucking Christ on a crutch… should be a sunset sarsaparilla crate full of medical supplies."

She didn't bother to respond , but I heard her rummage about looking for the antivenom. I felt her begin to pry open my lips.

"I can open my own mouth, thank you very much."

I growled, and demonstrated the fact. The clear, metallic taste of antidote flowed across my tongue and down my throat. A minute passed until I regained my vision. I stood up at the 2 and a half minute mark, and began vomiting violently at close to four minutes after administration. Venom had to leave my system somehow-still sucked. I washed myself off at the sink, and walked back into the main room, where the girl was leaning against the wall, waiting for me to finish.

"Thanks for saving me."

She said plainly, and extended her hand.

"My names Natsuko."

I took her hand and shook it vigorously. Before I could introduce myself, she asked;

"So I just fought off a pack of cybernetic cazadors in a preserved pre-war laboratory with a group of household appliances and an animal girl. Is shit always this weird out here?"

I thought for a minute, and then answered.

"Sort of comes and goes in waves."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3:yet more tourists**

"Sink mainframe, establish contact with forbidden zone. I want to know why the hell we just came under siege by Mobius's bots."

I ordered, walking back into the living room. The sink responded in a warped stutter-it must've been damaged in the fighting. I stumbled over the corpse of one of the cazadors as I walked.

"Established, madam. Shall I route the visual to the living room screen?"

"Yeah."

I responded. Natsuko was looking around warily, pistol still in hand. It took a couple seconds longer than usual for the mainframe to load the visual, but other than that and the warped voice, everything seemed fine with it. What I saw, however, was not fine. Not fine at all. The forbidden zone was a mess-well, more of a mess than usual. Several tables were overturned, and much of the equipment had been scorched. Dr. Mobius was broken beyond repair-His empty chassis was lying off center to the camera, His brains and fluid splattered all over the equations on the floor. Just barely visible was a man in power armor standing on the platform that overlooked the lab. He was absorbed in whatever he was doing until a message flashing on his screen alerted him to an incoming signal. He turned around to the face them.

"I see you've survived, even made an ally. I'm impressed, Nat."

He took off his helmet, revealing a head of short, graying black hair and an unremarkable face save the scar across his left eye. Natsuko immediately flipped a bitch at the sight of his face.

"Listen here you little shit!"

She yelled, approaching the screen. The man immediately cut her off.

"Listen to what, The bawling of some initiate brat who just learned how to wear armor? Fuck you. I got what I came for. Now, I'm going to strike up a deal."

He began to walk down the stairs, towards the monitor.

"You survived the first wave. Like I said, color me impressed. But I've got more, much, much more where that came from."

He was right in front of the receiver now, taking up most of the screen. His head appeared massive.

"You've got half an hour. Get the hell out of here, and don't look back. I don't care how, and I don't care if you'll survive in the desert. Take your friend and go away. Playtime is over."

With that, he disengaged from the transmission.

"Do you have any other weapons?"

Natsuko asked.

"Follow me."

I replied.

My father left me many things, but chief among them was his weapons collection. He'd been around the block a few times, and certainly had the memombrillia to prove it. Weapons ranging from hand-carved tribal war clubs to polished chrome tri-beam lasers hung on racks that encircled the portion of the think-tank we converted into our armory. Several sets of armor of various styles were laid out on tables. Natsuko quickly gravitated towards the heavier weapons, and picked up a minigun nearly effortlessly. She wielded it around, spun the barrels a bit, and basically fooled with it. She clearly had no problem handling it.

"Any powered armor?"

She asked.

"Sort of."

I replied. Father never was a fan of power armor. It wasn't that he couldn't operate it, it was just that he found the armor…. Actually, I don't really think he's ever explained that particular quirk.

"Closest thing we've got is a set of modified T-41B over there in a corner. Replaced the powered system with non-electric hydraulics, and removed a significant amount of plating to lighten the load while still affording superior protection. Good enough?"

Natsuko shrugged, and went over to it. _Good._ I thought to myself. _Now I can bring out MY toys._ I grabbed up two sawn-off shotguns and loaded each with EMP shot. I thrust a trench knife into my belt, and to complete my ensemble, a heavily modified assault carbine. I put on a Kevlar vest and slapped on some DAP's for good measure.

"You got a plan?"

I said, as I fastened all of my gear.

"No."

Oh, well, that's reassuring. I glanced at my pip-boy, and turned on its sensor functions. There were distinctive Cazador signatures in the air above the sink, as well as several other structures in the big MT. I noted where they were, and figured out a loose route that should've allowed us to evade them, for the most part.

"I can get us close to this…whatever his name is."

I told Natsuko as I marked our first destination-Lab X-7.

For the first time in just about ever, I saw clouds above the Big MT. Unimaginably huge swarms of robotic cazadors hovered above us, all of them ready to strike should we show any intention other than leaving. The weapons on our backs were ignored, just as I had hoped-at least there sensors weren't that cutting-edge, which meant my carefully formulated plan would work. Thank god for the small things.

"Please tell me your plan isn't just leaving while we have the chance."

Natsuko said under her breath.

"Just keep playing along. Follow my lead."

I muttered back, both our eyes trained wearily on the massive congregations of cybernetic insects above head. We continued walking at as casual a pace as possible for nearly 50 yards.

"Bolt!"

I yelled, dashing off to my left, towards the aforementioned lab. Nat followed as quick as she could in her armor (Which was actually far better than I had expected] The cazadors, now much to aware that something was awry, flew down towards us with frightening speed. Propelled by fear, we were at our destination in no time. I tapped a box on the screen of my pip-boy, and the thick metal doors opened…and closed behind us, putting a solid couple of yards of saturnite flecked steel between us and the cazadors. We both gasped for breath, panting.

"Well that's just great and all, but now we're in the exact same situation as before."

Nat observed. I waved her off and continued at a brisk pace into the metal bowls of the lab.

"Your lack of faith insults me. Anyways, we're not tautly cornered down here. Judging from their design, those modified cazadors are used to flush out fortified positions by coming in through vents and other weak spots other robots are too large to exploit. Follow?"

I explained, walking past the opened doors that mostly just contained broken cases and dusty dissection tables. Natsuko replied with a tinge of venom in her voice, as though I had offended her.

"I'm a brotherhood squire, not a blockheaded wastelander. Get to your point."

I chuckled as I entered the access codes to the lower levels on my pip-boy, then swiped it across the doors maglock reader.

"My point is that their too small to contain complex AI. They would have to have the blue-prints of whatever structure they are attacking downloaded directly to them prior. Obviously, Mobius-their original maker-must've gave them the blue prints to the entire complex, but nothing more…"

I went on as we hustled down a flight of stairs or two, the clacking and scraping of the cazadors B&E routine reverberating through the halls. A wall had broken down between the basement and the sewers, and I walked through, looking around only momentarily before spotting a sewer grate that appeared to be chewed through.

"For all those robots know. We couldn't possibly have made it into the sewers, and certainly couldn't of gone right through a solid sewer blocker."

I extolled the virtues of my plan with great pride as I stepped through, and we continued on our way.

"Well, can't we just enter the lab through the sewers, now?"

Nat asked. I shook my head.

"Sewers don't quite connect like that. Most of the main structures have a separate sewage system. There are a few drains down here that travel full circle around the complex, but there's no way you could fit one of us inside."

Our footsteps made deep, heavy sloshes that were ignored by the confounded and, for the moment, outsmarted, robots nearby. The slightly cool water came up to our knees, and was unsettlingly opaque. My mind wandered to some of the things I had encountered down here.

"How do you know so much about this place?"

Natsuko cast a glance behind her, making sure we were not followed. I simply shrugged it off.

"I guess when you live in one place. And have a lot of time on your hands, you get pretty familiar."

All told, it took us almost an hour to navigate through the sewers to the surface outlet nearest to Mobius's lab-the botanic engineering building. Long since destroyed by the prodigious plant growth and its own destructive denizens, it was little more than a pile of overgrown rubble with a few standing walls absolutely covered by thick creepers. The pre-dusk sky above us was a burnt umber rapidly receding the deep purple hue of night. It had certainly been a full day, and it was hardly over. The Massive, imposing swarms of cazadors we had seen must've been elsewhere at the moment, searching our last known locations. We very nearly came close to blowing our cover when we happened upon a pack of Spore carriers, 6 of them, but I merely gestured to Natsuko to remain quite as I screwed a silencer onto my rifle and plinked them off in rapid succession. We descended into a nearby gully, which led to the train tracks which led us into the canyon. The canyon was the best name I could come up for it, because it was nameless at the time but certainly needed a name. strange, glowing red crystals-some the size of house, maybe even larger-hung from the impressive fissures walls, which itself must've been at least 120-feet. Snaking through the canyon, aforementioned rail tracks, once used to cart sensitive computer parts and, often, dangerous substances to and from the lab, served to lead us through the maze-like paths directly to the former doctor Mobius's lab. For the second time today, I approached his door-although this time, It was in a slow, sulking crouch as I tried to avoid notice from motion detectors and cameras, before breaking the doors maglock using my pip-boy, and deactivating the security sub-routines from inside. Natsuko followed, still watchful for any unforeseen threat. She was obviously unnerved, and to tell the truth, I was, too. Cazadors are terrifying-Augmented cazadors who can chew through metal and carry a potent biohazard that strips you of your vision is just fucking scary. I could venture a guess that, in the backs of our minds, imagining whatever insane toy Mobius had made, and The stranger- I still hadn't caught his name-had pressed into homicidal service against us.

What we found down there was far, far stranger than anything we thought up.

There was nothing guarding the halls as we navigated towards the central nexus of the main room. The door to the lab wasn't even locked. The Lab looked much like it had in the transmission, except for the series of large tesla coils that encircled the room. Shit. Tesla coils were never a good sign. The equations were slightly changed, and I saw some symbols that I'd never seen before laid out on the floor.

"This place will serve my needs perfectly."

A voice ahead of us declared, and I brought my eyes to the man from the transmission, now standing in the flesh in front of me. His armor was decorated with a few of the scribbling's from the floor. He had his back turned to us, working diligently on the terminal in front of him. A slight _hum_ began to exude from the coils.

"So much research on the subject…Impressive. Impressive indeed, but incomplete."

He stood, turned, and looked at us. The Hum was getting louder, and peculiar sparks of a deep red hue began to form.

"Tell me, Natsuko. There exists an equal and opposite to each force in existence, correct?"

He continued. I could tell he was geared up for a monologue. He was steadily advancing toward a scorched spot on the middle of the floor.

"Of course…Now surrender. I've got you outnumbered two-to-one, and I haven't any time for your bullshit."

The man tsked.

"Hm. Bullshit? Try science that could change…everything. The discovery of ki was a stepping stone compared to my findings. An equal…and an opposite."

This last statement made Natsukos face turn pale with fright. She tentatively lowered her gun. I, however, was thoroughly lost.

"You mean…to say…"

The man laughed.

"Yes, squire. I have found Nemesis. What's more, I know how to _use_ it."

With that, the tesla coils burst into life, red lightning crackling along their length, Encircling us. From each, a crimson arch reached out and converged on the spot where the armored man stood. It seemed to pass into him, as though he was infused with it. Nonetheless, his body jerked in painful, unnatural movements, as though he was possessed by some awful fell creature. The dread electricity suddenly exploded from his body right at us. I felt Natsuko push me out of the way, before she was knocked into the wall by the monovalent energy. What I was seeing…was incredible. A source of power I was previously unaware, that carried such destructive power…scorched and panting, Natsuko stood, and raised her gun.

"Give me what you stole from me, and I'll let you live."

She uttered the command as though she had the upper-hand, and judging from her stance and expression as she revved up her gun, she thought this to be true.

"What, you mean this?"

The man pulled a sword from a previously unseen scabbard. It was a finely crafted long sword, whose blade gleamed in the harsh red glow emanating from the man. As soon as he lay his hand on it, Natsuko fired upon the man, who remained unmoving as the bullets tore into his armor, and his flesh. Quickly, I began to formulate a plan. He obviously didn't care about being shot full of holes, so an alternate approach would be necessary. He shot another burst of nemesis towards Natsuko, who managed to side step it this time, still firing even though it was obvious he was unfazed. I cast a quick look at the coils that harnessed this fell energy-it was obvious that, while there were many small tesla coils hardly the size of a man, 4 of them dominated the chamber. If I could only disable them, maybe it would destabilize the energy. I had no idea if it would work, as well as no idea what would happen should I succeed, I set about it, skulking in the shadows as the other two slung lead and energy between each other, one refusing to give ground because he was fueled by this mysterious nemesis and the other out of sheer stubborn tenacity. I managed to find a regulation interface on one of the panels, and seeing as it was the least armored part of the device, I fired upon it with one of my sawn-offs. it fizzled, and nemesis ceased to flow from it. The man took notice, and jerked his head to look in my direction.

"Clever girl, but I'm afraid your all out of time!"

He declared, and charged at me, sword held high and radiating the same red miasma as he was. I ran over to the next coil, disabling it in the same fashion, and took a long shot at the next one-which hit home, destroying the third tesla coil-before he caught me on the back of my leg with a slash. I fell to the ground, grasping the rapidly bleeding cut across both my thighs. I couldn't walk, and I dropped my shotgun, which clattered a few feet away from me. I looked at Natsuko-her minigun was broken, a useless, scorched piece of slag in her hands. She struggled with it uselessly, and I looked back up at the man, who stood above me, sword poised to be brought down for the killer blow. I closed my eyes.

I remember thinking that I was going to die .

Obviously, seeing as I am here now to record this strange, otherworldly event, That is not what happened.

I heard a sharp CLANG! And the crunch of broken machinery, and seeing as the sword strike had not yet come, I opened my eyes. In her frustration, it seemed as though Natsuko had thrown the minigun across the room, completely toppling the last large coil.

The energy did not stop flowing into the man. As a matter of fact, it flowed stronger-to strong. My mind snapped to the stimpack I always kept in the side of my boot-just in case-and I took, jamming it into the side of my leg. I felt bones and flesh begin to knit, and it gave me the strength to crawl away. The man was convulsing even more violently, his eyes rolling to the back of his head-the Tesla coils had apparently functioned to control and refine the Nemesis into an form that his mortal form could handle, and it now poured into him at full force. Natsuko ran over to pick me up.

"We need to get out of here. Right now."

I nodded, and began to run-the stimpack had worked fast-and we managed to make it out and close the blast doors behind us as we heard a very, very loud bang behind us.

When we went back to the surface, the swirling clouds of death had already crumpled into inert, lifeless carcasses, no longer receiving broadcasted orders from a destroyed facility. After a god 10 minutes of terse, silent walking, I spoke up.

"So…wanna do some explaining?"

"What do you mean, explaining? Maybe you should start."

"I'm a was made through the mixing of human and vulpine DNA, and I've lived in this facility my entire life. Happy?"

Natsuko didn't answer. I continued to prod.

"Seriously, what the hell happened back there?"

"I'll explain when we get back to that place you patched me up at."

"The sink."

"Whatever."

I noticed that she had picked up the sword the strange man had used. It seemed odd that a technophilic organization like the brotherhood would have use for such primitive weapons.

"The man's name was Knight Huxley. He the leader of the mission I was on before I found my way here."

Natsuko began, her cumbersome armor exchanged for a set of more comfortable clothing. She was sitting in one of the chairs in the living room, and I had lain on the sofa. Stretching my sore legs as they came down from the intense stimpack rush. The toaster was screaming obscenities for some reason or another, but I had turned it down, so it was sort of a muffled rant. The sinks mainframe had made us both coffee. I apologized that it was black, but seeing as my father only drank black coffee, as did I, it was an understandable mistake on the sinks part to think that all people in this day and age drink black. She didn't mind, and in fact preferred it black.

"We were out here attempting to make contact with a chapter that headed to the east coast about half a decade before. The brotherhood, while significantly less xenophobic, are still a small, stagnant faction at heart. Our elder ruled that it would do us good to get back in touch with our eastern brethren, so that they may bolster our ranks. Knight Huxley volunteered himself for the incredibly dangerous mission, and picked a team of inexperienced or incompetent members. Now I know why."

She blew the steam rising gently from her cup away.

"He wanted to use us to get him out here. So he could find this place, and all the research it contained. He killed the entire squad, and thought he killed me, and snuck in here somehow. You know the rest."

I turned over on the sofa to face her.

"Okay, I could understand why he'd come here…but what was all that Nemesis business when we fought him? I've never witnessed something like that before."

"That's a little more difficult to explain. You'd have to know the full story, really. The Brotherhood is known for its power armor. It not only shields us from the dangers of the wastes, but grants us superhuman abilities. For much of the existence, it was not known how the armor worked, or rather, we knew _how_ to work it, but we had no grasp of the principles behind it. We could use it, but we didn't have the means to build, or even understand it-everything except its basic use was classified on every military computer system we've accessed. About a year ago, we stumbled upon a factory that had manufactured power armor at one point before the war. The terminals there held the secret of how it worked. Turns out there was no mere hydraulics system giving our troops greater strength and speed, and no advanced targeting computer granting pin-point accuracy. All the armor did. According to the documents we found, was amplify the energy given off by a life form. We had a fancy name for it that I forgot, but most of us referred to its original code name in the documents: Ki. At first, this was met with disbelief, but eventually, the senior members decided to try to research and learn more about ki. If the armor could amplify it and by extension, the abilities of the user, what other uses could it be put to? After a few months of intensive R &D, one of our brightest scribes claimed to have developed a method to 'Channel' ones ki, granting effects to oneself without the need for powered armor. I could do so much more than the armor had indicated, actually. Those who became skilled in its use could cleave through steel walls with bare-hands or catch bullets as they were fired at them. But as the other members focused on ki, Huxley somehow deduced the existence of ki's 'Opposite', which he named Nemesis. He claimed it was more than just an energy that denied life, but denied existence as a whole, but otherwise functioned like ki. He proposed to the elders that, according to his calculations, Nemesis would be exponentially more powerful than regular ki. They allowed him to conduct his research. He had managed to train 3 initiates in the use of Nemesis, but all 4 of them died immediately after using it, the dark energy eating them from inside. His research was discredited, and he became alienated from the rest of the order as they researched ki instead of his discovery. He cursed us all as fools for a while, but eventually quieted down, and kept to himself. When he stepped forward to lead this expedition, everyone thought it was a bid to regain his lost status, but it appears as though he had some reason to think that this facility held important research concerning the safe use of Nemesis. Apparently, he was right."

"I never knew about such research…"

"Well, it was obviously there before Huxley got here. There was no way he could build those coils in such a short time. It's probably better we destroyed it. Too much power can be a bad thing…"

She trailed off, and I knew what she meant.

"So…what now?"

I asked. She shrugged.

"I'll have to get back to the brotherhood to tell them what happened here. Don't see how I can get across the Big Empty without your help-I have no supplies, or transport."

I threw a hand over my eyes.

"Yeah, I can get you back. You helped me out a jam, back there, even if you kinda caused it. We'll leave in the morning. I'll bring out some pillows and blankets, and you can sleep on the couch, if that's alright…Oh, is it okay if I just call you Nat?"

She thought me a look that communicated many things with a glare of the eyes, mostly _no_ and _I'm not afraid to cut you._

"Absolutely not."

We figured out sleeping arrangements and bid each other good night. I undressed and crawled into bed-I was quite bushed, as you can imagine. I wrapped my tail around myself and thought wistfully to myself as I drifted off to sleep. I pondered the recordings a while, the earth shattering revelations within. Worrying indeed. And then my minds wandered to Nat (I'm going to call her that, just not in front of her) I…I liked her. She was smart, and tough, but she seemed like she could be nice and funny, if the situation warranted it. A lot of people are like that, I heard my father say once. Nice people don't last long in the wasteland, so they try to blend in with the dour and selfish so that others won't take advantage of them, but there was always that potential for generosity and courage resting just below the surface, it just took a shock sharp enough to crack it. I wasn't really sure how I felt towards Natsuko…I could see her as a friend, but then again…I don't know. It's complicated. I haven't actually met a lot of people. I read a lot of books, though. And they talk about things like love at first sight. I don't know if that's what's happening to me right now, in regards to her. I have all this other stuff happening…anyway, it doesn't seem like she feels the same way towards me. Maybe I'm just being dramatic.

*Subject pauses. Analysis indicates that the subject is quite fond of pausing.*

Maybe not. I don't know. I'm going to go to sleep now. I'll figure this out some other time.

*End of pip-boy log #32:23:01, 03/17/83, subject: Seraphim Eldritch.*


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Good morning Darwin!  
The next morning passed uneventfully. I woke up before Nat, who was still recovering from her ordeal in the desert and the previous days altercations. I went down to the garage and refueled the Humvee, loading a weeks worth of food and water into the cargo area. When I got back, Natsuko was wide awake, arguing with the toaster, who had degenerating into just growling at her.  
"Not the nicest sort, is he?"  
I said with a wry smile.  
"You refer to your toaster as a he?"  
Natsuko asked, a confused look on her face. I heard one of the lightswitches pipe up, but I quickly cut her-okay, it-off. Nat didn't need to know about our short affair (Hey, I had a lonely childhood).  
"Its…just a habit I picked up. From…my dad."  
I said, rubbing on the back of my neck. I wasn't sure how she would take the news that I was the couriers daughter.  
"I know, Seraph. The sink told me when I asked who you were.""  
Natsuko had an unimpressed look on her face, completely indifferent to the fact, which could've been good or bad.  
"Its alright, really. There are worse fathers out there, but…He's a bit of a dick."  
I raised an eyebrow, a little maddened by the remark.  
"He used to come around and help the brotherhood, and negotiated for our sovrenginity from the NCR. Heard he did that for a lot of groups, like the Great Khans and the Boomers. Seemed like a pretty solid guy. But no ones seen him for years. President Kimball died mysteriously about a year ago, and his successor-President Cromwell- Is a fucking tyrant. He's undoing all the couriers work, and he hasn't been around to do jack about it. A lot of people don't really know how they feel about the courier, either."  
"Oh, um…"  
"Like I said, its alright. Can you get me back to the Mojave?"  
"Yeah. I've got a vehicle and enough supplies for a round trip."  
The rest of the morning passed rather…awkwardly as we finished preparing to strike out into the big empty. I was learning more about father then I ever did in these past few days.  
Driving in the wastes is a disorienting feeling, exspecially once you get out of sight from the Big MT. Flat, trackless desert all the way out to the horizon. Buildings and roads had long ago been erased by brutal sandstorms, so it didn't really feel like you were moving-everywhere out here looks the same. Needless to say, it wasn't a very enjoyable drive. It took me at least 4 hours to work up the courage to talk to Nat.  
"So…are deathclaws real?"  
I asked, two hands on the wheel (Although I doubt we'd need to steer at all)  
"Seriously?"  
"Yeah. My father used to tell me about them. They sound like a tall tale, honestly."  
"We just fought a swarm of robotic man-eating robots, and you want to call bullshit on deathclaws?"  
"Well, c'mon. foot long claws and razor sharp teeth, the size of two men put together? Doesn't that sound kinda far-fetched?"  
Before Nat could respond, she pointed out her window.  
"Hey, whats that?"  
I peered of in that direction. There was something out there, a long, gray ribbon that seemed to cut the desert in two. A road.  
"Well, we must be closer than I thought."  
I pulled up and started driving down the road-it would put less wear on the tires, and all roads lead somewhere. It wasn't more than 30 minutes (I decided not to bring up deathclaws again) before we saw a town in the distance. It was a small, seemingly uninhabited place, with a thick covering of sand and dust on every thing. A sign covered in graffiti and stickers proclaimed it to be Roswell, of New Mexico. I drove slowly through the main street before pulling over and stopping.  
"What're you doing?"  
Natsuko asked.  
"I just want to check it out a little, that's all."  
I replied, wiping the dust from the window of a nearby diner to see inside. Natsuko sighed and got out-I noticed she was cradling a double barreled shotgun in her hands.  
"I don't like this."  
She declared. I shrugged.  
"Relax. No ones been here for years."  
The door was slightly stuck, but I got it open with a little elbow grease. The inside was disheveled-moth eaten menus and aprons were spread out everywhere, and one of the things I noticed first was a skeleton with a crushed skull slumped over the bar, a revolver near his bleached hands. Fueled by morbid curiosity, I searched the room, giving the dead man a wide berth. Nat remained outside, guarding. Twice, I heard something scuffle around in the corner, but I didn't care-judging from the sound, they couldn't of been larger than your average rat. I couldn't find anything useful except the revolver, which I could not bring myself to take-I doubt it was at all useful in such a rusted, bloodstained state. Then I hear gunshots behind me, and Natsuko runs in through the doors.  
"Goddamnit! I told you, Seraph! They're out there!"  
She crouched behind one of the booths, frantically loaded the shotgun. I pulled my own piece from its hip-holster and dove behind the counter. I could hear people outside, running. One of them crashed in, almost breaking the aged glass door, and I shot her with as little as a thought, suprising myself a little. Natsuko also popped up and shot the others behind the woman. They were'nt dressed like I heard my father describe them-they didn't wear piece-mail metal armor, but instead wore drab green combat armor, and their weaponry looked to be in pretty spiffy shape, too.  
"Run! There's to many!"  
Natsuko yelled, and indeed turned tail and bolted for the back, Natsuko close behind, ditching the shotgun and grabbing her 9mm. We dashed through the kitchen, toppling racks of ancient cutlery as we ran to slow down our attackers, and made our way out through a fire exit.  
But there was just more of them. Almost 20, even, all with hardware pointed at our heads, all ready to waste us right there. One of them-an older woman in a steel beanie, brandishing an assault rifle, stepped forward.  
"Get on the fucking ground! Now!"  
She ordered, giving me a kick to my midsection even as I put my hands behind my back and fell prone. I could feel handcuffs encircling me, Nat going through the same thing. We exchanged worried glances. Natsuko really tried to seem reassuring and battle-hardened, but I could see she was terrified. I wish I didn't have a face full of gravel at the time, because I really just wanted to tell her Its okay to be worried. We're getting kidnapped by strangers in the middle of the wastes. This is fucking scary.  
The bigger ones picked us up and slung us over like their shoulders like sacks of fucking potatoes. I heard someone tell the head lady that the three that had gone around the front to flush us out were all dead. It was cold comfort. It would only make whatever fate we faced worse. We were uncerminously thrown into the back of a military truck, and two soldiers kept us company, hitting us with the butts of their rifles if we moved to much. I saw that they decided to take my Humvee, too, which kind of pissed me off-I learned how to drive in that thing-but their was nothing I could do without getting aqaunted with Mr. Kalishkinov first. I wanted to turn my neck so I could see Nat, but I couldn't-these fuckers would punish the slightest movement-We were heading up the mountains, I remember that. I saw a sign or two. I couldn't make out much of what it originaly said, because it was obscured in large stencil letters that simply said "DARWIN". I think I blacked out then, cranial trauma combined with severe dehydration and shock, probably.  
When I came too, Natsuko was facing me. we were both caged, but thankfully not somewhere underground-High windows filtered in orange desert sunlight high above us.  
"Rise and shine, I guess."  
Nat said, obviously in a bit of a funk.  
"You missed the whole damn thing. We're sentenced to death at sunrise tomorrow."  
"What?"  
"Yeah. Guess we intruded on their territory, killed their people, and now their high elder or some shit demands our execution."  
She ran a finger through her hair as she said that last part, the usual light in her eyes all but gone. There was chainlink separating my part of the cell from her part. I crawled over-My legs kind of hurt.  
"Yeah, they weren't to gentle with you. I think they broke something. Isn't important. We'll be dead soon."  
She said wistfully, running her hand along the chain link.  
"Don't talk like that."  
I said, holding my legs.  
"That's the truth, Seraph. They have us by the balls. Its best not to get torn up about it."  
"Don't. We can figure something out. We can do this. We already beat that one asshole, and he had nemesis or whatever…"  
"That was different. We had equipment, we had the home turf. We weren't is cells. We weren't crippled."  
"What are you talking about?"  
I noticed Natsuko was hiding half of her face behind her hair. She pulled it back-her eye was blackened, as though someone had stuck a torch right down the socket. Her expression wavered slightly as she showed me…  
"I…I'm so sorry…That's horrible."  
She let her hair fall back down, and sighed.  
"So I guess this really is the end."  
I asked. She only nodded.  
"Is it okay if I confess something?"  
I asked. She was caught off guard by such a question, and reeled back a little.  
"Sure, I guess. Won't matter much to keep a secret now, right?"  
I held my knees tighter. I didn't really know how to go about such a subject (Beyond prior experiences with inanimate objects) so I just dove right in.  
"I love you."  
I said, simply, which sort of surprised me. Not I think I kinda like you or Your really cute, Like I imagined approaching her. I didn't even know if she liked girls. She didn't react to much-which I'm still not sure is a bad thing.  
"That's…sweet."  
"Yeah…I've kinda had a crush on you for the past day or so."  
"I didn't think it happened that fast, but alright. Like I said that's really nice. And we're going to die anyways. Why not have each other until then?"  
"What do you mean?"  
I asked, quivering a little. Impending death or not, I liked where she was going. She put her fingers through the chain-link fence.  
"I love you to, Seraph. You're a good person. You saved my life. You don't deserve this."  
I thought it was odd how she only said You instead of Us, but I didn't think to much about that. I locked my fingers with hers, and we held hands through the fence as best we could. She looked great, despite her injured eye and the fine amount of grit that had accumulated on her. She smiled at me, and I must've beamed back. We remained like that for a long time, until one of the soldiers came to check on us. Threatened to beat us unless we knocked it off. Jailers always get pissed off when you find something to live for-undercuts there whole purpose. He left with a huff, slamming the door behind him, cutting off the oh-so-brief view of the outside that I had. I could hear Nat counting the seconds. Once she had 120, she turned back to me and began digging at the bottom of the chainlink.  
"What're you doing?"  
I asked, as she struggled intently with the fence.  
"This was a rush job, and with some shitty fencing. The cage itself is rock solid, but we might be able to get through this."  
She said, and as I looked closer, I could see here deft hands working the strands of metal loose, and gently undoing the fence. I tried to help, but she told me I should'nt hurt my foot. She stopped being so fatalistic, which was good. In almost no time, she had made a whole big enough for her stocky frame to inch through to my side. I was really excited, actually. Then something came to me, all of a sudden.  
"Hey, is it me, or did they not react at all when they saw these?"  
I asked, pointing at my fox ears and bushy tail. Natsuko shook her head.  
"Matter of fact, don't think they did. Strange."  
"Yeah."  
She was through the fence now. She helped me over against the wall, and we faced each other, sprawled out on the floor, dehydrated, hungry, and physically scarred. I felt great. She took me in her arms around me, holding me tight as I cuddled her, nuzzling deeper into her grasp for the warmth and comfort she provided. Sometimes, she would rub her hand up and down my stomach gently, and it would stir me a little-I quite liked the sensation, actually. We kissed a little, occassionaly, our embrace more about emotional support and simple love than actual passion. Then, a thought occurred to me.  
"Can't you use your ki or whatever?"  
I asked. Nat shook her head gravely.  
"I'm not terribly good at using it. I've only recently learned how to channel it, and shaping it into anything remotely useful is beyond me. what about you? They couldn't get your pip-boy off."  
I looked down at my wrist, and the familiar hunk of metal that I had now taken for granted was still firmly attached to my wrist. I brought it up and scrolled through the options, trying to find any ports to connect to-There was a plethora of electric devices in the area, but all of them had milspec encryption, and I doubt any of them would be useful even if I could crack their codes.  
"Nothing. Looks like we're in quite a jam."  
I said, turning it off.  
"Hey Seraph?"  
"Yeah?"  
"I don't know if deathclaws are real. Never ran into one."  
With that question answered for the most part, we drifted to a gentle, uneasy sleep in each others arms.  
My dreams were fitful and haunting, terrible visions of our impending death, reducing the warmth I felt from Natsuko to a cold comfort. I woke with a start in the middle of the night, our fate mere hours away, the wrathful gales unuiqe to deserts at night raged outside. But I heard something else outside, my keen ears picking apart the sounds of a scuffle. It was short and quite, implying someone had struck someone else from hiding. I heard them fiddling with the electronic lock on the buildings front door and, surprisingly, they were successful. The light above the hanger doors turned green and they opened slightly. A stringy, silent figure crept into the room, his body completely hidden by ragged cloth and gloom. He looked around futily for something before noticing us.  
"Natsuko, wake up!"  
I whispered into her ears. Her eyes fluttered open, but her body didn't move. Her gaze immedeatly fell on the newcomer.  
"Who's he? He doesn't look like the other soldiers."  
"I don't think he is."  
The man began to walk back to the door, and I could notice now that he was talking to himself in a thin, raspy voice befitting his thin, raspy visage. He was debating with himself about leaving us. He must've stewed in his own indecision by the door for a good couple of minutes before coming back and picking the lock. His hands were not swaddled like the rest of him, and his fingers looked incredibly odd, almost like they belonged to a dead man-the skin was flayed, exposing bare sinew, muscle and bones, yet they moved with a deft nimbleness as he eased our cells lock open and swung the cage door open as the two of us got to our feet. I began to thank him, but both he and Natsuko held fingers up to their mouths and shot me a piercing glare. The rag-man gestured for us to follow, and we did. As we stepped outside, I could see the lone guard slumped against the hangar walls, a thick red line drawn across his neck. While out particular holding cell was shrouded in the pre-dawn dark, other parts of the compound were brightly lit by flood lights. Rags pointed toward one of the well lit areas-on the hangar appeared to be a fully functional jet.  
"Is that what you came for?"  
I whispered. He responded in his slightly disturbing voice.  
"Yes. Its also how I can get you out of here."  
"Can you even fly a plane?"  
Natsuko butted in. apparently, she had backtracked to steal the dead guards firearm. The rag-man just nodded. In the dim light, I could see his eyes between the wraps of cloth-cloudy, sightless orbs with little distinction between pupil and iris.

"I don't like this plan one bit. How are we supposed to even get down there?"  
Natsuko argued, still displeased with the rag-man.  
"I'm not sure. I wasn't counting on picking up two extra bodies. Lets put our heads toegether."  
I brought up my pip-boy and checked it-the connections were still there. Maybe now that we were out of the cage, there might be something useful for us. I scrolled a bit and found a port marked "Sengun sys flightstrip" And began to work at its encryption. I was dimly aware of Natsuko and rag-man staring intently at what I was doing on my screen. As I had predicted, the codes and firewalls were Milspec, but I could crack them with a little work. Soon, I was in the sentries control node. My original plan was to remove all the soldiers from the "Don't shoot" Registry, but I ran into problems almost instantly-the file was corrupted somehow. I couldn't do anything with the data. At first I thought it a dead end, but then I remembered that you could sometimes still Add things to a corrupted file.

"Hey Natsuko, say cheese!"  
I said, holding up my wrist to get a good scan of her features. The process got a decent image despite the substantial lack of lighting. I was about to do the same to Rag-man, bu he refused, holding up a weathered airforce security badge. That would certainly do. I went back to the sentry node, and entered mine and Natsukos face into the registry with little difficulty.  
"Well, that takes care of the robots, what about all the damn people?"  
Oh, I hadn't thought of that. I went with my first instinct and grabbed Natsukos gun.  
"What're you-"  
"Trust me on this one!"  
I fired a short staccato burst into the air, and shooed her and Rag-man off. Rags ran fast for his build, almost leaving Nat behind. I ran the opposite direction-I could already hear the tramp of standard issue boots coming in my direction. The encampment seemed oddly deserted, and I found a seemingly deserted substation to hole up in. I padlocked the door, and set to work on a nearby terminal. They're had to be some information here-they neglected to run any tests or intterogate me, so I assumed they would know something about me. I found something that caught my eye, a protected file marked [ ] It had been updated recently, and I tried to download it-the security code would take to long to crack, exspecially with soldiers hot on my tail. My pip-boy began to download the contents painfully slowly. I heard the soldiers outside, searching. It was only a matter of time before they found me.  
I decided I would take the offensive. I racked back the slide of my rifle, well aware of the fact that doing so would do nothing but make me feel slightly more badass. I opened the window as someone shone a flashlight in-I shot before they did, and the pin-point of light clattered to the ground limply. A few other flashlights turned in my direction, and I sprayed wildly, hoping to scare them more than wound, and once the magazine was spent, I immediately came to terms with the fact that I had not bothered to search the guard for magazines, and neither did I ask Natsuko if she had, and I was, in fact, completely out of ammo.  
Woops.  
I tossed the now-spent weapon aside and dashed out the door. Bullets whizzed over head as I ran, running from cover to cover, trying desperately not to get shot. God, that was such a stupid fucking idea. I was comforted by the fact that I had at least bought the others enough time to get out. The landing strip was still a considerable distance away, but it was completely abandoned and unnoticed, save for the two figures who had busied themselves prepping the bird for flight. I ran wildly in their direction. I was running off of self preservation at this point, and didn't quite care about distracting the soldiers for as long as I said I would. Through some odd miracle, I actually managed not to get shot as I ran across the flat tarmac that led to the plane. I heard Natsuko yelling at me to get in, and I barely managed to jump in before rag-man closed the cockpit. It was I tight fit-I had to sit on Natsukos lap-but we managed. We were about to take of when I looked down at my pip-boy. The file wasn't done yet.  
"Wait! Hold on, Don't take off yet!"  
I yelled, frantically even as bullets pinged of the metal hull of the plane. Rag-man ignored me, and the plane steadily sped up-before taking off completely. A ground-to-air missile whizzed by, barely missing us.I was glad to be alive and free, sure, but I stared dejectedly at my pip-boy. I was incredibly curious as to how much information they had on me-and, possibly, others Like me. but its not like we could just go back. At least this mysterious rag-man was going towards the Mojave, and I could probably re-fragment the file to get some information out of it. Oh, and I got to sit on Natsukos lap-thank god for small favors, right?  
Yeah, Right.  
In a little under an hour, the sun rose, and I could see the Mojave under in the sky beneath me. It was…breathtaking, to say the least. I picked out all of the old landmarks my father told me about- Nellis AFB, Red rock canyon, the glittering lights of Vegas-which looked pretty fucking redundant in broad daylight. I noticed the plane was descending, and it quickly became apparent it was running out of fuel. Silently, our strange rescuer brought us to an abandoned air field a couple dozen miles south of New Vegas. As we piled out of the jet, we quickly elected to go try to make up some sleep in the near terminal which was, thankfully,abandoned.  
I think I must've slept a good 5 hours or so, because when I finally roused myself out of my sleeping bag, the sun was directly above, already baking the grainy concrete of the concrete. As I stepped back outside, I noticed Natsuko and the rag-man standing around a large fire. The plane was gone, but then I noticed that the plane was the fire.  
"Why on earth did you light it on fire?"  
I asked, incredoulously.  
"Its useless, now. That flight was its last hurrah. I highly doubt we'd be able to find any more fuel for it."  
Rags said, his voice even rougher and more sand-paper like than I remember. Well, then. I guess that's a pretty reasonable assumption. I figured he probably wouldn't really budge on divulging why he'd stolen the plane in the first place. I looked up at the sun above us. I was out of the big empty, in the land of blood and fortune my father always spoke of. In the distance, Vegas's lights shone on defiantly, an invitation…and a warning. Compulsivly, I reached for Nat's hand, but she…recoiled from me. wouldn't talk to me. we walked on for a while after that, and I would occasionaly strike up discussion with the Rag-man (Who decided to stick with us, at least for a while.) but Natsuko remained silent. We've stopped at a crumbled building to hide while we catch up on sleep. Rag-man said he'd go out and find some supplies for us.  
"Don't you want to rest?"  
I asked, and he got this real distant look in his eyes before he said;  
"I don't sleep much anymore."  
Before heading out into the wasteland heat. That just left me and Natsuko down in some musty, unstable basement.  
"Ummm…Hi Nat. What's wrong?"  
She looked drenched with fatuige, and she wouldn't meet my gaze.  
"Just…nothing. I'm sorry."  
"Sorry for what?"

"Last night."  
This, of course, came as a shock to me-that was easily one of the best things that had happened to me in a long, long while.  
"What do you mean?"  
"Look, it was okay when we thought we were going to die. But…I'm just not the kind of person who should be in a relationship."  
She said, as she turned away on her bedroll. I…I think I began to cry, and I started pleading with her to stop.  
"Look, I…I just don't want to hurt you, Seraph. I'm sorry."  
The silence after those words, the sudden dawning of the painful reality, was simply to much for me. I couldn't bring myself to talk, and Natsuko had said all she had to say. I'm lucky I can even talk about it right now. I stared up at the ceiling as I realized another important little tidbit-what the hell am I supposed to do now? When I get Nat back to the brotherhood, what am I supposed to do? I sure as hell can't make the trek all the way back to the big MT yet again. Maybe the brotherhood would take me in? yeah, sure. Whatever. I'll figure it out, I guess.  
*End of pip-boy log #33:10:20, 03/21/83, subject: Seraphim Eldritch.*


End file.
